Design, synthesis and activity evaluation of novel peptide fusion inhibitors targeting HIV-1 gp41

作者：Tan, Jianjun^*; Su, Min; Zeng, Yi; Wang, Cunxin

来源：Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, 2016, 24(2): 201-206.

DOI：10.1016/j.bmc.2015.12.003

• HIV-1
• Fusion inhibitors
• gp41
• Drug design
• Peptide

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the pathogen of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), causes about 2 million people to death every year. Fusion inhibitors targeted the envelope protein (gp41) represent a novel and alternative approach for anti-AIDS therapy, which terminates the HIV-1 life cycle at an early stage. Using CP621-652 as a template, a series of peptides were designed, synthesized and evaluated in vitro assays. An interesting phenomenon was found that the substitution of hydrophobic residues at solvent accessible sites could increase the anti-HIV activity when the C-terminal sequence was extended with an enough numbers of amino acids. After the active peptides was synthesized and evaluated, peptide 8 showed the best anti-HIV-1 IIIB whole cell activity (MAGI IC50 = 53.02 nM). Further study indicated that peptide 8 bound with the gp41 NHR helix, and then blocked the conformation of 6-helix, thus inhibited virus-cell membrane fusion. The results would be helpful for the design of peptide fusion inhibitors against HIV-1 infection.

• 出版日期2016-1-15
• 单位北京工业大学